How much should you tip on a catering delivery?

As we look at our website traffic analytics reports, we constantly see this question or similar being asked in Google searches and then the customers get linked to our FAQ page, so finally after about a year of seeing this, we figured we would write a blog article about this, and would love to hear some comments/opinions on this from anyone reading this article!

Tipping on corporate catering is a very gray subject matter compared to the customary 15-20% expected for good service dining in at a restaurant. I think it's also gotten to be somewhat customary to tip close to these percentages for the "pizza delivery driver".

The policies of our Snapfinger Catering partners are all over the map and we try to mirror their "direct" policies. Some charge a high delivery fee and do not expect a tip or suggest something very small like 5%, some charge no delivery (or a very small one) and suggest a restaurant-like 18% tip, and then we even have some like Chick-fil-A that include it in their prices (usually a higher price than takeout prices) and do not expect either. The common denominator - a customer should expect to pay something extra to have an order delivered to them.

If there is not a separate delivery price or a delivery fee is not included, we would suggest a minimum 10% tip as appropriate.

If a restaurant only charges a nominal delivery fee of $10 or less, a tip of around 7 to 12% is likely appropriate. Also, take a look at the vehicle being used --- if it's a company vehicle, it is likely the majority of any delivery fee is not going to the driver and is being used to cover the expenses of maintaining the vehicle by the restaurant or caterer and thus you may want to take a little better care of the driver.

If they charge a delivery fee of more than $20, and the distance traveled is not terribly far, then tips of 0 to 5% and no more than 10% are probably more appropriate as it is more likely that some of that delivery fee is going to the driver.

And then you have the case of a "restaurant delivery service" that utilizes independent contractors. These companies usually will charge a nominal delivery fee and suggest tips of 15% or more. These independent contractors are using their own vehicles and usually do not get a chunk of the nominal delivery fee, nor are they compensated on an hourly basis. If they provide a decent service in setting up your meal in a courteous fashion versus dropping it off at the receptionist desk, 15% will be greatly appreciated by these drivers.

Your company can set a standard tipping policy with Snapfinger Catering, such as adding a 10% tip to all orders with the ability to edit that amount prior to checking out. Give us a call to get this setup for your company.

Also, if you are not happy with the service you received on an order or better yet if they exceeded your expectations, remember you can contact us or chat with us to have the tip adjusted after the delivery, as we do not charge credit cards till later in the day. And just so you know, Snapfinger Catering passes 100% of the delivery fee and tip amounts to our partners, none of this is withheld for what we believe are "value-added" services provided by the Snapfinger Catering team. Our service really is free to our customer base and remember that we offer price assurance! Throw in our SNAP Rewards program and we could argue we are cheaper than "going direct"!

We could go on and on with this topic, but thought we'd get some of our thoughts out there based on our experiences these past 18 months or so, and would love for some corporate customers, pharmaceutical reps and restaurants/caterers to weigh in with their opinions on this tipping topic! While we may not have made the topic any more black and white, we hope you found this article helpful!